WRIA 14 PLANNING UNIT MEETING

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

2:30-4:30 p.m.

Shelton Civic Center

Shelton, WA

Meeting Summary

Attendance:

Government Members Present:

John Konovsky, Squaxin Tribe

Herb Baze, Diane Marcus-Jones, &  Bob Fink , Mason Co.

Theresa Parsons, City of Shelton

Dick Wilson,  Mason County PUD # 1

Phil Wiatrak, Dept. of Ecology

  
 

Government Members Absent:

Thurston County

  

Other Planning Unit Members Present:

  

Constance Ibsen, LHCWIC

Warren Dawes, SWPSWC

Diane Cooper, Taylor Shellfish

  

Others Present:

  

Bob Burkle, WDFW

Susan Gulick, Technical Project Mgr/Facilitator

1.      Watershed Plan

q      The PU reviewed the draft scope of work from Nancy at Plateau Technical Communications.  Plateau was selected as the preferred consultant to write the plan out of seven proposals that were submitted.

q      The PU agreed that Nancy should rely on the following documents for the plan:

o       For habitat, Nancy should rely on the LFA and the South Sound Salmon Recovery Strategy.

o       For water quality, Nancy should rely on the water quality monitoring plan, the Goldsborough Temperature Study and the QAPPs for the TMDLs in Oakland Bay & Eld/Totten/Little Skookum.

o       For water quantity, Nancy should rely on the Storage Feasibility study, the NWL&W Hydro-geo report, the environmental report for the regional water and wastewater system, and the instream flow Step C report.

q      In addition, PU members agreed to review the following documents and extract the portions that will be useful for the plan.  Nancy can then rely on these sections of the documents.

o       Warren agreed to review the Totten/Little Skookum watershed plan as well as the Oakland Bay watershed plan (these are commonly referred to as 412 plans).

o       John K. and Diane C. agreed to review the nearshore studies.

q      All documents will be provided by the PU to Nancy.

q      The PU wants the habitat component of the plan to look broadly at aquatic habitat and not be limited to salmon habitat.

q      Diane M-J agreed to gather all the source files for the maps included in the Technical Assessment and give them to Nancy.

q      The process for the plan will involve Nancy compiling a list of key issues in the watershed based on the technical documents.  In addition, PU members will identify key issues at a future meeting.  After the issues have been finalized, the PU will identify options they want to consider to address each issue.  Nancy (with the assistance of NW Land and Water, who are sub-consultants on the project) will research these options and provide a few paragraphs of text describing each option.  The PU will then prepare recommendations based on the options for which there is consensus.

q      The contract with Plateau needs to state that the PU will receive the deliverables in their original file format, not just PDF.  In addition, all deliverables should be provided in a format that can be posted on the web page.

q      The PU approved the scope of work with these clarifications. Susan will e-mail the revised scope to the mailing list; if there are no additional comments Susan will then forward the scope to Diane M-J to be put in the contract between Mason County and Plateau.

2.      Goldsborough Creek Temperature Study

q      The flights to gather infrared temperature data have been completed and a final report will be available in 2-4 months. 

q      John K. passed out some results from the Tribe’s seepage run of Goldsborough Creek.  These will be integrated into the final report.

3.      Hydro-Geo Study

q      The PU approved the map of the study area provided by Jim.

q      The PU authorized NW Land & Water to gather low flow samples for the geo-chemistry work up to a maximum of $1550.

4.      Updates/Announcements

q      Amy of the Conservation District will come to the next PU meeting to give a presentation on the South Sound Salmon Recovery strategy, which will become a key document for the habitat component of the plan.

q      There is now a USGS gauge in Goldsborough Creek which is run by USGS and paid for by the Squaxin Tribe.  The data is downloaded and posted on the USGS web site.

q      Ecology has approved the PU’s request to spend grant funds on stream gauges.  Phil will invite the stream gauging experts from Ecology to the next TC meeting to discuss this further.

q      Taylor Shellfish has received a water right from Ecology.  Diane C. thanked the Squaxin tribe and the PUD for their assistance and support in this lengthy endeavor.

5.      Upcoming Meetings

q      The next TC meeting will be on Wednesday, September 8th from 10-12 at the Shelton Civic Center.

q      The next PU meeting will be on Wednesday, September 22nd from 2:30-4:30 at the Shelton Civic Center.

q      The next meeting of the Joint Watershed Planning Committee for Hood Canal will be on Thursday, October 7th in Hoodsport.